A new Circuit Bending Forum

mosc · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 8:10 am Post subject:

You're both very welcome. I admire your energy and enthusiasm for these projects. I used to do llots of building years ago. It's a great way to learn electronics and you can build instruments that a perfectly matched to your musical interests and abilities. Also, the DIY crew brings a refreshing diversity to the electro-music.com community. I wish we could get some circuit benders to use the forums here. I'd be quite happy to have a Benders' forum.

dnny · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 8:26 am Post subject:

v-un-v · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 8:29 am Post subject:

s. t. Demas · Joined: Jun 21, 2005 Posts: 17 Location: Holland

mosc · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 1:10 pm Post subject:

OK, I have just created a Circuit Bending forum under Instruments and Equipment. Well see what happens. I think it's a great field.

I'm going to split this topic to make the first topic in the new forum. Thanks for your enthusiasm. Cool

s. t. Demas · Joined: Jun 21, 2005 Posts: 17 Location: Holland

davep · Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 10:17 am Post subject:

v-un-v · Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:50 am Post subject:

seraph · Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 2:45 pm Post subject:

v-un-v · Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 4:38 pm Post subject:

dnny · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 1:24 am Post subject:

seraph · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 2:27 am Post subject:

s. t. Demas · Joined: Jun 21, 2005 Posts: 17 Location: Holland

that tv bending isnt my thing , im lucky to survived my first bending.
i got some great shockes out of that thing, but i am stil alive

but its a lot clearer for me what is the bending and the modding.
basicly the bending you do it yuorself ,and the modding better leave that to the experts.

mabay thats the fun ,it are the Very Happy

sounds of the unexpected.

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paul e. · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:01 am Post subject:

paul e. · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:11 am Post subject:

ok it gets a little silly here tho

http://censtron.com/tnt/

s. t. Demas · Joined: Jun 21, 2005 Posts: 17 Location: Holland

v-un-v · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:05 pm Post subject: Anti- Theory

seraph · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:11 am Post subject: Re: Anti- Theory

mosc · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:12 pm Post subject:

You should never bend or play bent devices that are powered from the AC mains. Always use batteries.

dnny · Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2005 10:22 am Post subject:

i got it ready

Posted Image, might have been reduced in size. Click Image to view fullscreen.

i will start new topic about modifying TVs to Analog Visualization Unit -
it might be dangerous but it can be done

daniel

s. t. Demas · Joined: Jun 21, 2005 Posts: 17 Location: Holland

dnny · Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2005 1:31 pm Post subject:

s. t. Demas · Joined: Jun 21, 2005 Posts: 17 Location: Holland

its a cool tv , kind of painting for a dark room . Very Happy

looks bizzarre Smile

gsga · Joined: Jul 22, 2004 Posts: 267 Location: allentown, pa

Just saw this. Great idea to have a dedicated forum. Does anyone have any DIY links for beginners like me? Or any other resources? I want to get started on this ASAP, as I have alot of toys/toy synths at my disposal.

Xyn? Anyone?

zynthetix · Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 7:51 pm Post subject:

I used some of Reed Ghazala's diagrams when wiring up a Speak n Math. His site is here:
http://www.anti-theory.com/soundart/

I was looking for those useful but weirdly drawn circuit board schemes on his site - they look like planets with pin numbers and lightning bolts connecting them to represent wires to add for bending... I couldn't find these schemes, but I noticed he has a new book out...maybe he took them off the site and put them in the book?

From what I gather, its a kind of hit or miss process when bending an instrument. Take it apart, make some sound (however the device does normall), and touch random parts of the circuit board to see if the sound alters. If the sound does alter, play with those areas more and try to precisely find which pins or components on the circuit board are affecting the sound. Once you find some of these "hot spots", you can solder seprate wires to them and figure out how you want to access these hot spots once the thing is back together. You can solder a switch or push button to the newly added wires, or solder thumb tack finishing nails to each wire and mount them to the outside of the case. (you'd be touching the head of the finishing nails with your fingers from the outside of the instrument to warp the noise). You can also add a resistor or a knob inbetween the wires you've soldered to vary the too. Its basically a whole whole lot of experimentation to see what happens.

I think and of the Texas Instruments Speak &.... devices are good to start with, since those are gauranteed to have some good results and theres a lot of people who have played with those and posted tips on the web.

Does anybody remember Joker's "circuit bending tool" he had at electro-music 2005? It was a little red box with a one row of resistor knobs (varying strengths) and one row of capacitor knobs, a set of pins for each row. He would connect the wires of two "hot spots" on the toys to the pins and play with the knobs to see what capacitance or resistance number made the best sound, then solder a seperate capacitor or resistor or knob to the hot spots when done. It was damn fine tool, makes it quicker to experiment and adds some method to the mayhem.